Leadership Through Medicine and Service

Feliciano Serrano, MD, has built his career around specialized medicine, research, and a commitment to serving the Los Angeles community where he was raised

His path has included advanced training in nephrology and vascular interventions, NIH-supported kidney research, lecturing and research at Harvard Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and years of caring for patients in Southern California. Across each stage, Serrano has maintained a consistent philosophy: patient wellbeing should guide the decisions physicians make and the improvements they pursue.

“People’s health and wellbeing take priority or precedence always. Everything else comes second,” Serrano says. That perspective has influenced both his approach to patient care and his willingness to continue learning throughout his career.

How Los Angeles Shaped Feliciano Serrano’s Medical Career

Growing up in Los Angeles gave Serrano an early understanding of the different challenges families can face when seeking medical care. He credits his parents and family with teaching him the importance of helping those who are less fortunate, a lesson that later became central to his professional life.

Feliciano Serrano began his higher education at the University of Southern California, earning a Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences. He later completed a master’s degree in Biological Technology and Genetics at California State University, Dominguez Hills before earning his medical degree from the Keck School of Medicine of USC. He then completed his Internal Medicine residency at White Memorial Medical Center in Los Angeles.

During his residency, Serrano remained focused on serving the community that had shaped him. At the same time, he began to recognize that treating patients with more complex illnesses would require additional expertise. That realization led him to specialize in kidney disease and eventually pursue advanced training in vascular interventions.

Advancing From Kidney Care to Medical Research

Serrano continued his training at the University of Vermont School of Medicine, where he completed a fellowship in nephrology and hypertension. He also received NIH-supported fellowship funding to study thrombosis in kidney disease, including research involving platelet dysfunction and the complications associated with renal disease.

His work eventually included research and lecturing at Harvard Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Serrano’s CV lists research involving platelet function, thrombosis, chronic renal failure, hypertension, and cardiovascular concerns, with work appearing in medical journals and at professional conferences. These experiences helped shape the way he approaches difficult medical questions.

Serrano believes physicians should be willing to examine established practices when there is a responsible opportunity to improve patient care. “Do what is right always even if the status quo, political or popular belief says the contrary,” he says. For Serrano, that principle is closely tied to research, careful evaluation, and the willingness to keep learning rather than accepting that an existing method is necessarily the final one.

One experience in particular reinforced that belief. Serrano recalls receiving scrutiny after helping pioneer a different approach to dialysis at a time when the methodology was considered unconventional. He says the approach later became accepted as a standard method of care.

The experience strengthened his belief that meaningful changes in medicine can require perseverance, especially when physicians are working to improve established processes.

Building Expertise in Vascular and Interventional Care

Following his nephrology training, Serrano pursued an additional fellowship in Interventional Nephrology and Vascular Procedures through the University of Arizona College of Medicine and AKDHC. The program expanded his expertise into procedures involving veins and arteries and allowed him to build on his understanding of the relationship between kidney and vascular health.

His approach to this work places considerable emphasis on process. Rather than measuring success through outcomes alone, Serrano believes professionals should continually examine how those outcomes are achieved. “You measure success by perfecting the mechanism and not by simply assessing outcomes,” he says. “If you do things right and improve on these methods, eventually you will achieve favorable outcomes.”

That philosophy extends to his view of leadership. Serrano emphasizes collaboration with colleagues and community leaders, along with setting increasingly high standards for his own work. He views improvement as an ongoing responsibility rather than a milestone that is reached once.

A Continued Commitment to Los Angeles

After years of advanced training and research, Serrano brought that experience back to Southern California. In 2009, he became Medical Director of Serrano Kidney & Vascular Access Center, where his work has focused on providing nephrology and vascular care in Los Angeles.

For Feliciano Serrano, serving Los Angeles also carries personal meaning. He is fluent in English and Spanish, allowing him to communicate with patients and families across communities in a region he has known throughout his life. His commitment has extended beyond his regular clinical responsibilities as well. Serrano reports receiving two awards from the City of Los Angeles recognizing substantial pro bono medical services provided to underserved and homeless populations.

His career has taken him from Los Angeles to major research and medical institutions and back again, but the principles behind his work have remained remarkably consistent. Serrano credits empathy, compassion, perseverance, collaboration, and continual improvement as important influences on his approach.

As he puts it, “The goal of every day is to simply be better than yesterday.” That focus on steady improvement continues to connect his work as a physician, researcher, community member, and leader in specialized patient care.